The Citadel (OS)
For Citadels as they appear in the 830 continuity, please see ACS-1 Citadel or ULCS Golden Eagle. The ''Citadel was a mobile, gargantuan aerial battleship that once served as the primary headquarters for the Liberators from 2013-2016, and was a secondary headquarters for the United Liberators Coalition's overseas operations before the Coalition's fall. She was capable of indefinite flight due to a classified magical power source, and was designed by Tony Griffins, Roland Vlocke, Louis Donaldson, and Davkas Droverson. In December 2017, she was destroyed by the Coalition in a controlled decommission and demolition, as part of the organization's dissolution. =History= Design The ''Citadel was built in 2013 in the aftermath of the Sacking of the Bunker, which had resulted in the total loss of the Liberators' former headquarters. Due to the destruction of the base, Liberators leader Tony "Swift" Griffins decided that attempting to rebuild the base would be too difficult, and settling down in another base would only leave his organization open to attack. It was decided by Liberator leaders to construct a new headquarters that would include all the necessities needed to function as the hub of a super-group, but at the same time would be able to defend itself and move from location to location to ward off attacks. Thus, the Citadel Project was born. The proposal was drawn up by Tony Griffins, and the Liberators met in early 2013 to discuss how to set about building the new headquarters. Griffins proposed that the new headquarters be a plane; one massive enough to function as an HQ, but with the ability to fly like other aircraft. It would be fitted with state-of-the-art defenses and powerful weaponry to counteract attempted attacks, and was named 'Citadel' to represent its intended purpose as near-unbreakable stronghold. Though the plan was met with enthusiasm, there were immediate concerns regarding the plane's size, and questions regarding how it would be able to take off, remain in the air, and how it did so without resulting in astronomical operating costs. Swift answered that there was a solution: the Liberators had taken detailed scans of the extra-dimensional gunship from the future that had crashed months earlier, and Vlocke Aerospace Industries was on the brink of perfecting a reverse-engineered propulsion system that would enable the Citadel to remain aloft and reach high speeds despite its mass. Swift immediately summoned Louis Donaldson and Roland Vlocke to assist him in drafting models and blueprints, and construction would start shortly after. Construction Construction began at Complex 12. The Citadel started out as a keel, then a skeleton, and then an airframe that slowly grew more intricate and complete as time passed. Complex 12, already the largest and most secret facility owned by VAI, had to use their largest construction bay in order to house the Citadel. Building of the massive ship took months, even with a vast amount of resources dedicated to the project. By April, when the Citadel was almost seemingly complete, Complex 12 was attacked suddenly by an unknown faction possessing incredibly advanced technology and superior weaponry that easily overwhelmed and neutralized VAI security forces in the area. The intruders destroyed the propulsion system components that were about to be installed, and ransacked the complex, destroying all traces of the new reverse-engineered technology, while a simultaneous attack on Vlocke Aerospace Industries headquarters deleted all files regarding the technology as well, leaving the Liberators and VAI deprived of a way to power the Citadel. Interestingly enough, the intruders were careful not to damage anything else besides their target, even sending compensation in cash to Vlocke and his workers in the aftermath, and even using their powerful technology to help finish the Citadel to near-completion. Despite this, the Citadel was still missing a propulsion system, and construction halted. In June, the Liberators encountered a mysterious and powerful magical artifact known as the Orb of Eternity. After retrieving it from a research laboratory that had inadvertently caused it to go haywire, the Liberators managed to stabilize the Orb and secure it. Griffins realized that the Orb could potentially be the answer to the Citadel's power problem, and would provide an unconventional solution: a magically-powered aircraft. With the help of wizard Davkas Droverson, the Citadel's systems were radically redesigned to work with the new power source, and a complex collection and containment array was built to house and protect the Orb at the core of the ship. One month later, the Citadel successfully took off from Complex 12 for the first time, and after a series of final checks and trial runs, entered Liberators service. Liberators Service Libertia In 2014, the Citadel participated in a campaign against the Libertian Army, in an alternate-reality universe where totalitarian and dictator versions of the Liberators had taken over a significant portion of North America, and fought counterparts of itself. It was used to great effect at the Battle of Capitol City, where it was instrumental in turning the tide of the conflict and defeating the Libertian leadership. She suffered heavy damage but was later repaired and refitted to Libertian Air Force specifications, adding sixteen magitek gun batteries and replacing the small bow windows with a larger, single reinforced transparasteel nose cone among other features. Bleeding Fist The Citadel traveled the world in December of 2015 when it fought the Bleeding Fist, a human-supremacist terrorist organization. In this campaign the Citadel assisted in bringing down several Bleeding Fist bases, rescuing civilians from a burning skyscraper in Dresden, Germany, and leading allied forces in a combined assault on the primary Bleeding Fist complex in Antarctica. It was here that the ship's magitech cannons were used at full power, dealing massive damage to the Bleeding Fist HQ before its remains were obliterated when its superweapon targeted itself and turned the base into a crater. Visiting Night Pride The Citadel flew to Night Pride, an island of manimals, in early 2016. Here she kept guard over the island and fought against VIPER, and participated in a successful allied operation with UNTIL forces to fend VIPER off from the island. Shiuedao Island During a lull in the attack on Night Pride, Shiuedao Island came under attack by VIPER. The Citadel visited the area for the first time and landed at the Abandoned Supervillain Lair on the peaks of the island and deployed armored personnel carriers to drive down to the village, while the ship itself hovered over the island and provided air support. She was critical in using her sheer size and firepower to intimidate VIPER into hesitating in their attacks, and rescuing the village's population by evacuating them off of the island. Serpent Institute In early 2016, the Citadel attacked the Vault, the main holding facility and headquarters for the Serpent Institute in the Rockies, with the support of PRIMUS. The Golden Eagles assisted the Liberators in defending and fortifying the ship as it came under attack, but despite their efforts the ship was boarded and successfully commandeered by enemy forces. Institute soldiers managed to breach its security systems, access the engineering deck and break into the Magitek Core Chamber, and eject the core from the ship, seizing it. The Citadel was badly damaged in the attack, but survived when the Institute and Liberators arranged a ceasefire and reached a peace agreement. She was repaired weeks later and the Orb was returned and plugged back into her systems. Formation of the United Liberators Coalition The Liberators, Serpent Institute, Vlocke Aerospace Industries, and Frost Futuretech formed a new organization called the United Liberators Coalition in 2016, and relocated their base of operations to Liberators Tower. With the construction complete on a larger and more dedicated facility, the Citadel was no longer needed as the primary headquarters of the Liberators, and was retired from service as such. However she still serves as the organization's secondary headquarters for overseas operations, and has her own special drydock at the new complex. She is capable of evacuating the majority of the building's personnel complement in the event of an emergency, though other evacuation routes and vehicles exist. All good things... In 2017, the Coalition dissolved. The Citadel was destroyed in a controlled demolition, much to the reluctance and sadness of her pilot and builders. The Citadel was destroyed by charges placed at key points throughout her superstructure, and intentionally crashed into the sea over the Atlantic. The mystical artifact the Orb of Eternity remained with it, at the wreckage of the ship, whose coordinates are known only to Swift, Roland Vlocke and Velocies. Armament and Technical specifications After a string of constant attacks on the Liberators, the Citadel was constructed in order to keep the team on the move, its nature as a mobile headquarters high in the sky making it difficult to track and destroy. The name Citadel was coined by Hellion Mk. II. Armament The Citadel was armed primarily with 16 magitek gun batteries and two heavy bow cannons. It mainly functioned as a transport and mobile base, and not as a battleship for some reason despite what its name suggested. Defenses The Citadel possessed some form of close-in-weapons-system but details about it and how many batteries it possessed are unknown. The ship did have magical shielding present, powerful enough to allow a direct head-on collision with enemy Citadels in Libertia and subsequent survival with minor damage. This shield was enough to ward off most attacks. Propulsion and Power At the heart of the ship, a magical reactor containing the Orb of Eternity was responsible for powering the ship's systems, electrical and otherwise, and gave the ship's engines enough thrust to allow for flight and hovering capabilities. This reactor chamber was heavily guarded to prevent damage to the sensitive systems, which would greatly diminish all of the ship's capabilities, especially combat and propulsion and force it to land. * The ship was capable for flight for a very limited amount of time after the removal of its primary power source, through the use of backup mana reserves. Despite being able to land, it was rendered useless. One such incident occurred during the conflict with the Serpent Institute, leaving the aircraft out of the fight for the rest of the war. Few were aware of the nature of the ship's power source, as it was a classified and closely guarded secret known only to the primary team of the Liberators. Upon its destruction, the Orb was buried deep underneath the sea over the Atlantic Ocean at a point where it would be difficult for it to be retrieved, along with the rest of the ship's wreckage. Landing systems The ship had various landing gear wells to contain the large wheels that would deploy for landing. It could, in an emergency land conventionally at some airports, though this required both the large rudder fin and the bottom wing fins to be retracted. The ship mostly relied on direct vertical landings instead at dedicated docks. The ship performed one known conventional takeoff, and zero known conventional landings, though such an incident was trained and practiced for. Reboot in Liberators-830 series The counterpart to this aircraft in the remake universe of Liberators is both the USS Citadel, which shares its name and status as the first aircraft of its class, and the ULCS Golden Eagle, which shares its status as the main mobile aerial base operated by the protagonist team.